


Feathers

by Thistlerose



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Banter, F/M, Making Out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-22
Updated: 2013-04-22
Packaged: 2017-12-09 05:45:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/770673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thistlerose/pseuds/Thistlerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written in 2005.  Next year, Charlie will be working with dragons in Romania, but Tonks will still be at Hogwarts.  Saying goodbye isn't easy, but it doesn't have to be horrible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feathers

"It just won't be the _same_ without you." Tonks sighed tragically. 

"Uh-huh." Charlie didn't look up from his magazine.

Tonks inched closer until she was able to see over his shoulder. The magazine was opened to a perfume advert. He wasn't reading at all! She thumped his shoulder with her fist.

"Oi, what was that for?"

"Because you're ignoring me."

"Stop being a stupid featherhead and maybe I won't ignore you."

Tonks glared. Charlie glared right back at her for a moment. Then his broad, freckled face broke into a grin. 

"You!" She tried to hit him again, but he grabbed her wrists and pulled her across his lap. The magazine fell forgotten to the common room floor.

"Hello," he said, smiling down at her.

"I'm going to _miss_ you," Tonks confessed. "It won't be the same. How come you've got to go to Romania?"

"Because they offered me a job there," Charlie reminded her. 

"But you got some offers from Quidditch teams, too," she insisted. "You could stay here. You don't _have_ to go so far away."

"Yeah, I do. Before my family drives me mental."

"But you wouldn't have to live with them. You'd make enough money to afford your own place. You could take a flat in London – or anywhere. With some of your team mates, maybe."

"Or with you?"

"Yeah." Tonks looked up at him challengingly.

He leaned over to kiss her nose, but it shrank from him until it was barely the size of an almond. When he pulled away she restored it to its proper size. 

"That's gross."

"But you'll miss it."

"Not _that_ particular trick, but I'll miss _you_."

This time he tried to kiss her mouth and she let him. She also let him slide one hand up her shirt and cup her breast. She was tempted, as always, to make her boobs bigger. Charlie didn't seem to care, but she liked the idea of _more_ of her in his hand. His palms were callused from gripping a broomstick and pleasure rippled through her when the rough skin brushed her nipple. 

"I _know_ that if I try to undress you," Charlie murmured, "my idiot brothers are going to just happen to find a reason to come down here."

"You don't have to undress me," Tonks said brightly. "I mean, it would be _nice_ , but I can feel you through my clothes." She wriggled until her thigh brushed his erection.

"I'm going to _miss_ you," Charlie groaned.

"I'll be done with school in a couple of years. Maybe I'll come to Romania. I'd be brilliant with dragons."

"You'd get roasted."

"How?"

"Tripping over a dragon's tail. Waking him when he doesn't want to be woken up."

"I wouldn't."

"Yeah, you would."

They kissed and fumbled for a few moments more. Then somehow Tonks managed to fall off Charlie's lap and landed with a thud and a grunt on the floor. He joined her, laughing.

"Shut up," grumbled Tonks, but he didn't.

"Fine." She seized one of the throw pillows from the couch they'd been sitting on, and hit him across the shoulders. She didn't hit him that hard but the pillow burst and a shower of feathers fell around them like snow.

"Good one." Still laughing weakly, Charlie plucked a feather from the air and twirled it between his fingers.

Tonks closed her eyes. The feathers landed gently on her upturned face. One of them tickled her ear. She shook her head, but the feather did not fall away. She lifted a hand but by then Charlie was already on top of her, straddling her hips with his knees, and tickling her mercilessly with the feather.

"Stop – stop!" she shrieked, twisting beneath him. 

He stopped her mouth with a kiss, but he kept tickling her – on her face, her neck, her ears, over her ribs. He kept going despite her pleas, until all she could do was lie there helplessly and let him kiss her.

Once she was limp Charlie lifted his head and smiled. "Don't change, all right?"

"What, like this?" Tonks asked tiredly, and changed her hair from pink to lilac. "Oops, I changed."

"You know what I mean."

"Yes," said Tonks. 

But she didn't really because she was only sixteen and barely knew who she was. When she and Charlie met again years later it was clear that they had both changed a great deal, but as to when and how many times neither had any idea. 

He seemed whole, but his mouth was grim as a scorch mark, and his eyes were dull as stones. She knew that her eyes were blue and that her hair was brown but she felt strangely colorless. If she stood very still perhaps he wouldn't see her.

He didn't seem to.

So she said, "Wotcher," softly, and he looked at her and looked at her until the stones in his eyes seemed to crack a little. Then she was in his arms and he was broader than she remembered and he held her far more tightly than he ever had when they were kids. 

But his kisses were still light as feathers.

9/12/05


End file.
